(re-posted with permission from Vipin Kandwal)
It was drizzling Sunday evening of July 2008 with a short film maker who recently owing to his diligence proved that he stands tallest amongst all around him. Last April, he marvelously brought to life his long cherished dream of organizing largest international short film festival of India. With infusion of life into his dream, the walled city of Ahmedabad witnessed the rising of a new name “Shiladitya Bora”. I was with him to chit chat with him on what next?

He was real warm in greeting and with all formal hospitality stuff settled on sofa across the table standing between him and me. Aviator fame ‘Howard Hughes’ peeping from a poster behind him, his room was fragrant with his passion for celluloid and every element inside testified his zeal of making a mark in film industry. With half finished cigarette butt held delicately dangling between his fingers, Shiladitya, told about what plan he has for future. He was still modest and had no sign of air of achievement. It was now he talked about ‘Zindagi 24 frames per second (Z24FPS)’, his maiden full length feature film. Believe it or not, as the conversation progressed, quite casually and friendly, I breathed, ate snacks, drank beverage, heard him and saw around but what Shiladitya did, I observed was, sipped, breathed, drank, saw, felt, ate and heard only and only his plan on how he will bring to life ‘Z24FPS’ exactly replicating his imagery of the story and creative aspirations.

I was increasingly curious to understand why he is so passionate about just another project. Is it because Z24FPS is the first project, which can make or break his fortune in Bollywood? May be it because failure of the project financially will drag him several years behind and discourage him to take another leap? Or is it because he has dropped out of college placements which necessitates requirement of backup support? Can it be due to just another step to look like a passionate producer? I was really struggling to construe what Z24FPS really means.

My struggle was brought to halt soon when I realized that irrespective what Z24FPS finally comes out to look like, but Shiladitya wishes to create a masterpiece of art which shall frame by frame be enjoyed by audience irrespective of geographies, histories and language they come from. Z24FPS, Bollywood or Hollywood are not tantalizing terms for him. Due respect to all existent and non existent masters of film industry, he has a desire of being like nobody but himself. His style and persona like any individual is unique and if reflected in his movie shall essentially make Z24FPS more than a film. Keeping cost, revenue, star cast etc aside Z24FPS anything less than a grandeur is not acceptable to him. I was eager to meet the man after I recently joined the Z24FPS community on two of the social networking websites and read about him. About Z24FPS, if I divulge details it would be like stealing from audience a fun of enjoying a real treat, hence, I shall restraint myself from doing it, however, the audience agape I believe, will appreciate international treatment of the film, rich in content and full of finesse. Right from the first public imagery available on Orkut/Facebook, Shiladitya was personally involved in every small aspect of creative process and looks continuously doing so until Mr. perfectionist finds absolute alignment of his visualization and the engineered end product. When asked how he has managed to achieve all that he has, he shyly and modestly quoted “Itni shiddat se maine tujhe pane ki koshish ki hai, ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saazish ki hai”